Self care by growing a garden

We got our almond tree planted today 🤓. I moved some daffodils that were growing in a spot where we did not want them, know it is not the optimal time to transplant them but it was a case of either move them or lose them.

mum has picked out lots of sunflower seeds out of the bird seed so i can plant them in her garden @Former-Member , @Adge

Sounds a good idea @Shaz51 Sunflowers are lovely - very tall, big flowers.

Should be easy to grow them.

I like Strawflowers (a type of Everlasting Daisy) - they have long stems & Huge flowers too.

Adge

I planted the asparagus seedlings and strawberry runners today filling one of our wicking beds.

Also got the bramble berries in, have planted some seaside daisy seedlings around the base of them primarily to hide the edges of the blue tubs we dug in to help restrict the berry roots.

@Former-Member well done on your planting efforts - wow asparagus - I have never grown that before - I don't even know what it looks like in the ground 🙀.. I'll have to look it up

my hyacinths are just coming up, my first lemons are nearly ripe (all 3 of them lol) and my rainbow silverbeet is doing wel still 🙂

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@Former-Member wrote:

I planted the asparagus seedlings and strawberry runners today filling one of our wicking beds.

Also got the bramble berries in, have planted some seaside daisy seedlings around the base of them primarily to hide the edges of the blue tubs we dug in to help restrict the berry roots.

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Lemons are a great fruit to grow @Sophie1 given they can be used in both sweet and savoury cooking. Growing different coloured veg = great fun.

The asparagus and strawberries are the first plantings in the raised garden beds of our new kitchen garden @Sophie1 which we made to measure for "square foot / high yield" garden spacing (90 cm wide x 2.4 m long to allow for 30cm x 30cm squares). It is recommended that some squares are planted with flowers that attract beneficial insects and/ or contribute to soil health.

@Sophie1 @Former-Member , sounds good! I love the rainbow silverbeet. I let it run up to seed so that I get more of it.

I've been pruning back shrubbery growing along our drive, cutting the bits into 20-30 cm lengths, then spreading it on the paths as a bottom layer under the wood shavings and chipper mulch. So I did another rubbish bin full of that today, and buried it under the toppings. I also put a bucket-sized pocket of soil into the edge of the path and planted a pot of Corsican Mint, as another groundcover I'll be encouraging to sneak into the paths. It likes damp shade, so I've put it on the south side of a shed in a place where it will get watered regularly. It has tiny leaves that smell and taste intensely of peppermint, and makes a dense mat at ground level. It's about the only mint species that doesn't totally take over the garden!

And also spread some bucketfuls of wood shavings in the chookpen. Even though it's covered, enough rain has blown in to turn the soil inside into mud... they thanked me by laying an egg.

Corsican Mint with somebody's fingers for scale. 😛

@Smc I didn't know the silverbeet would seed - I will do that as I'd love it to come back

@Former-Member we have one garden bed raised and a few pots - we may add more in the future as we have small space left

@SoS this is the gardening thread I thought I'd tag you as you said you would love to be a florist

Had another bonza time outdoors today. As well as planting some liliums, I got a bit of weeding done and transplanted a number of Velt lilies I came across to make a border of them in another bed.

Veltheimia

Has anyone ever had these Red Hot Poker (Kniphofia) plants @Smc @Former-Member @Shaz51 ?

I have always liked them (they look impressive) - yet I've never had them.

They were more common, years ago - seem less common now.

I haven't seen any in gardens recently.